Striking a Balance: An Interview with Student Life Leaders Declan McArdle and Zoe Becher | Thomas More College

Striking a Balance:
An Interview with
Student Life Leaders
Declan McArdle and
Zoe Becher

by Bridget Ruffing, ’22

Thomas More College Seniors Declan McArdle and Zoe Becher took time out of their busy schedules recently to answer some questions about their experience at Thomas More and their plans for the future. In addition to the rigors of completing their senior year at Thomas More College, each has taken on the responsibility of serving as Proctor of Student Life. According to the College Student Handbook, Proctors are “appointed by the Dean of Students to maintain safety, security, and good order on campus.” One female and one male Proctor are selected each year from among the student body, and they work closely with the Resident Assistants (RAs) and the Dean of Students. This means that Declan and Zoe have each had to strike a delicate balance between meeting obligations as a student, as a friend, and as an authority figure, all while constructing a senior thesis and planning for life after graduation. Zoe and Declan have risen to the challenge with good will and determination, and have found that working on the Student Life team provides ample blessings to compensate for the occasional trials. 

Thomas More College expects a great deal from its students, and it is not simply a truism that the more one puts into the education provided here, the more one gets out of it. Zoe and Declan have both engaged with enthusiasm in all the College has to offer, from its rich spiritual life, to its tight-knit community and rigorous academics. Both proctors have found this engagement to be deeply rewarding: their experiences as students and leaders have provided them with a love of learning and a determination to maintain a healthy balance in their lives which will serve them in innumerable ways after graduation. 

How did you find out about Thomas More College and why did you choose to come here?

Declan: I first heard about Thomas More College from my sister, who graduated from the school the year before I came as a freshman. From the beginning, this place sounded so unique;  it was clear, from my sister’s account of the many traditions surrounding the school, that this place was something special. In 2016, I went to a summer camp, during which I had a taste of the curriculum. We read books similar to those I was reading in my high school classes at the time; the difference at the camp was that I felt I was really getting something out of them. I had always known that the Great Books had something invaluable to offer, but reading them in high school had only left me wanting more. At the end of the day, I was confident that TMC would be where I would thrive the most, because it would teach me real truth, both in and out of the classroom.

Zoe: I first found out about Thomas More College through a family friend. I did not pay particular attention to it at the time, as I was attending another liberal arts school, Thomas Aquinas College, but I stored it away in the back of my mind. After completing a year at TAC, it became apparent to me that the teaching method that institution had adopted was not fulfilling me academically or pushing me to be greater in the areas in which I needed it. Thomas More College came to my attention again as I looked for other great books schools to transfer to. The guild program immediately caught my interest, set the school apart from the others I was researching, and spurred me on to give this school a closer look.

I have been a member of several guilds over my time at Thomas More: the Folk Music, Homesteading, and Woodworking guilds, all of which I greatly enjoyed participating in. The one I enjoyed most was the Homesteading guild, which I joined because I have a great love for physical work in the outdoors. This guild gave me the opportunity to take a break from studying and exercising my brain to focus on being outside in the New Hampshire climate, which is something novel for a Californian!

Thomas More College places great value on developing the full person through the academic, spiritual, and social life provided. The value placed on these three core aspects of the Thomas More College experience cultivates and encourages the growth of the person as a whole, and was the factor which confirmed my decision to attend the school, a decision I have never once regretted.

What, in your view, makes the College unique? What do you love most about the school?

Declan: In my view, Thomas More College is particularly loyal to its curriculum in one main way: life on campus offers to teach as much as is taught in the classrooms and the books we read. I see a life at Thomas More that attempts to really bring about what we’re learning here. This is essential to a liberal arts education, if anyone is to benefit from it. We aren’t just here to know the highest things for their own sake, but also to live them out.

Above all, I love the people here. What I see most in my fellow students is joy, something which is becoming increasingly rare in the world. While the books we read are the reason we are all here, we know that we could read these same books anywhere else. Someone who chooses this College is choosing more than a bookshelf full of Aristotle, Aquinas, and Chesterton: he is choosing to read those books in the best possible environment. We don’t just talk about Aristotle’s Ethics here; we practice it. Best of all, our Christianity is not hidden: every day, I see students striving to live with charity, attending daily Mass, improving their prayer lives, and discussing the Truth with one another at the lunch table.

Zoe: I believe Thomas More College is unique among great books schools in that it recognizes that a thriving, happy, and healthy individual needs to live a balanced life. This recognition comes out in the three aspects I mentioned earlier. The College has a rigorous academic life, but it also presents plenty of opportunities for growth in the spiritual life as well as events and campus-wide celebrations to draw the community closer together.

It sounds cliché, but the studies are what I love most. The faculty are highly invested in the students and dedicate a lot of time and energy to ensure the students are learning well. All of the courses work together and build upon each other. I also love that the College requires its students to spend a semester abroad in Rome. I found the time spent studying abroad allowed for the development and growth of my own person through immersion in a people and culture so different from my own.

What is community life like on campus?

Declan: What stands out the most about our community is its small size, along with everything that comes with that. After one semester, a freshman knows almost every name on campus. You don’t run into too many strangers here, once you’ve joined the community. This immense familiarity among students sets the tone for all campus events, from daily meals, to Traditio, to our many banquets.  Everyone knows everyone; we are a kind of family. Each class is small enough to have an identity of its own, whereby it adds something special to the life here and builds on the traditions that will continue after it has graduated.

Zoe: The community on campus is very tightly knit. Everyone knows each other by name, students and faculty alike, and you see everyone on a daily basis. It is a bit like a second family at times. If I had to describe the community life on campus in one word, “vibrant” comes to mind. There is an atmosphere of living life joyfully and to the full. 

What is the Faith life like on campus?

Declan: In a word, very strong but not overbearing. I think both those qualities are important for growing young Catholics into true soldiers of the Faith. Since my first year, a sizable group of students has always said at least two hours of the Divine Office each day, and we almost always have daily Mass and confession. In the last year, especially, with the many trials due to the coronavirus, I have seen some real religious courage in my teachers and fellow students. They have shown themselves to be truly dedicated to what we do here.

Zoe: It is very active. You can see it all throughout the day: saying grace in common before meals, prayers at the beginning of class, daily Mass, confession and rosary, not to mention lauds and compline said in the chapel on a daily basis. There are many opportunities for spiritual growth on campus. For example, one of our teachers, Professor Fred Fraser, leads a group of students each year through the 33 Days to Morning Glory, a personal retreat in preparation for a Marian consecration. This has become a favorite devotion of mine ever since I was first introduced to it here at the College.

What are your favorite courses or readings thus far?

Declan: One of my favorite courses here was an Upper Tutorial offered on Friedrich Nietzsche. This is one of many examples of a class wherein we are taught the philosophy of someone who is mostly wrong—or, in this case, partially insane. Someone might ask why we would teach something that is wrong. The simple answer is that we can see where the greatest minds fell, who could have stood so firm on our own turf—the Catholic Faith. Nietzsche’s philosophy is so fascinating because it turns our traditional way of thinking on its head: he tries with all his might to prove that good and evil are just social constructs designed to bring power to people. He also doesn’t believe in a stable, universal nature for the human being. This was all very clarifying to learn about, but it didn’t take long for me to miss my beloved Aquinas and Aristotle.

Zoe: Some of my favorite courses have been Art and Architecture (taken in Rome), the Humanities sequence as a whole, and an Upper Tutorial on Dialectic, Rhetoric and Sophistic.

Are there any aspects to serving on the Student Life team that you find particularly challenging? What, in your view, are some of the most important benefits the Student Life team gives to the College community?

Declan: For a student, Student Life work is a juggling act. We are asked to protect the wellbeing of every student and to enforce the College rules. It took me almost two full semesters to find the balance between coldly “laying down the law” and being a pushover. You can’t make any compromises, and yet you don’t want any enemies. The key, I think, is simply to be understanding. Giving people time and attention provides them with the assurance that you’re looking out for their good just as much as for the good of everyone else.

For me and my teammates, it’s both a challenge to offer ourselves for the life of a community, and a huge opportunity to grow. It’s difficult, even frustrating at times, but worth it. Among the many ways the Student Life team benefits the whole College is by creating a link between the faculty and staff and the student body. Without that link, our community would not be as whole as it is, and its unique familial atmosphere would not be as strong.

Zoe: I would say finding the balance between being a peer and an authority figure is particularly challenging. It takes some time to get used to, and honestly, I am not sure that I have quite found the right balance myself, but it gets easier with time.

I believe the role as a mediator between the students and administrative authorities is the Proctor’s chief benefit to the community. Declan and I know from our own experience what it is like to be a student, and so we both more readily understand the situations of the student body and have an accurate view of the community on campus. 

Have you begun working on your Senior Thesis? Can you provide a few words about your topic and some of the works you are drawing from to defend your Thesis? 

Declan: My thesis is on Farming and Family Life. Last summer, I worked at a friend’s family farm for five months, and I have been in love with agriculture ever since. I am convinced that farm life offers the Catholic family something special that no other occupation does. In a word, farming is the original work given to man by God. Because of this, man is most fit to be a steward of the earth, and the family has its best life on the land. The rise of industry and government-subsidized agriculture has crushed private farming almost to oblivion, and this is a tragedy that we have disguised as a blessing. In my thesis, I intend to propose a solution to this problem. Right now, my primary texts are Fr. George H. Speltz’s The Importance of the Rural Life, according to the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, and Leisure; the Basis of Culture, by Josef Pieper.

Zoe: I have done a great deal of reading and compiling notes which will start to form the written work very soon! The topic for my thesis is the vocation of the Catholic laity, and how they are to attain holiness. I chose to focus specifically on the role and virtues belonging to women. There is a strong influence of the feminist movement in society today that is doing a lot more harm than the good they declare they are accomplishing. I am arguing that the feminist view of women does not cultivate what is genuinely feminine but is actually a perversion of what women are called to be. 

I am drawing from Church writings such as Mulieris Dignitatem, Apostolicam Actuositatem, Pope John Paul II’s Letter to Women, as well as other related works such as Women in Christ and Love and Responsibility, and more.

What are you hoping to do after you graduate?

Declan: I am well on my way to begin training to be an airline pilot. A few weeks after I graduate, I will drive down to Florida, where I will spend three months acquiring my Private Pilot Licence. Later on, I hope to start a homestead, growing food for my family at home.

Zoe: After graduation I have my sights set on becoming a doula, or a midwife’s assistant. In the interim, I will be returning to my home state of California to continue working at Associates Insectary, where I have held an internship over the past two summers, and to complete my doula training.

 

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